I've definitely gotten discouraged before. Many times. And I've only been here for 8 months! The people bitching and complaining about the market; and their overall pessimistic outlooks on the future of the platform.. it's just too much sometimes. But like you said, you have to form your own little Steemit reality. I'm still working on that as I made a lot of mistakes when I first joined the platform.

I think with more people like us who are just here regardless, putting forward genuine content and riding the wave.. this place could become wonderful :)